And that's just the second surprise. The standards bods also want to call out fake news

David “Doc” Searls, co-author of 1999's cyber-utopian document The Cluetrain Manifesto, has persuaded the IEEE to launch one of two new IEEE projects seeking to inject a dose of ethics into the world of tech.…

The New York Timesreported this evening that Apple entered into a partnership with Volkswagen Group to pair a number of electric T6 Transporter vans with Apple's proprietary autonomous vehicle software. The vans will reportedly be used to shuttle employees around Apple's company campus, and it's not clear whether the deal will extend from there.

The Times says that this deal only comes after Apple tried to find a partner in BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The company has shed hundreds of employees on the project, in a department that once boasted about 1,000 workers.

According to the Times' sources—"five people familiar with the negotiations who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly"—BMW and Mercedes-Benz rejected a partnership with Apple due to requirements from the Cupertino-based firm to turn over all data and some design aspects of the car.

The FBI has seized a key domain used to infect more than 500,000 home and small-office routers in a move that significantly frustrates a months-long attack that agents say was carried out by the Russian government, The Daily Beast reported late Wednesday.

The takedown stems from an investigation that started no later than last August and culminated in a court order issued Wednesday directing domain registrar Verisign to turn over control of ToKnowAll.com. An FBI affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast said the hacking group behind the attacks is known as Sofacy. The group—which is also known as Fancy Bear, Sednit, and Pawn Storm—is credited with a long list of attacks over the years, including the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee.

As Ars reported earlier Wednesday, Cisco researchers said the malware that infected more than 500,000 routers in 54 countries was developed by an advanced nation and implied Russia was responsible, but the researchers didn’t definitively name the country.

A law bill that would require AI bots pretending to be humans to identify themselves as such is progressing through California's Congress – but has hit opposition from the Electronic Freedom Foundation.…

Uber has confirmed that it's shutting down its self-driving car operation in Arizona – without waiting for the conclusion of the official investigation into the death of a pedestrian in the US state in March.…